Blade guides for band saws are designed to aid the blade’s ability to resist deflection at the sides and back of the blade by the use of bearings usually a guide assembly at the top and another set of guide supports below the table. The problem we have learned to live with is the blade is still able to twist as pressure from the wood being cut is transferred to the back blade guide or as the wood or stock is turned. In turn these bearings do there job by keeping the blade running true to the wheels they travel on. This works pretty well except for a few issues. Heat build up and accuracy of the cut on the vertical plain when performing re-sawing.

I saw a video on Laguna’s web site and looked into the ceramic guides.

LAGUNA features a set of “ceramic guide blocks” that they claim supports both side to side and thrust support. The ceramic pieces are integral to the mounting block and permitted to touch the side of the blade, as well as the back without heat build-up, as well as giving stability which sounded good to me due to the amount of re-sawing and book matching I do so I went and ordered them along with a 1” re-saw blade which they call the “King Blade” made exclusively for re-sawing.

Time to install the blocks and the new blade

I thought this would be a good time to perform some maintenance and cleaning to the saw new tires on both wheels, a new capacitor for the motor and a full cleaning and a full inspection while I wait for FedEx to deliver.

Come back next week and see how everything went together and we turn on the saw for a test cut. I will be cutting a piece of 4/4 Walnut for book matching panels. If I can I will post some pictures along the way…

I’ve got the 1 1/4” resaw blade from laguna, but I’m using some carter blade guides. I’ve never seen resawing like this blade. On some mahogany you could hardly tell the resawed side to the planed side. They are great.

Good luck.

-- I've been blessed with a father who liked to tinker in wood, and a wife who lets me tinker in wood. Southern Delaware soon moving to Virginia karsonwm@gmail.com †

When I was unable to install my ceramic guide block on the top guide I sent them some pictures and they had a guide made up at no charge. Here is a photo of what I have now. the round post is to small to hold the guide. Maybe you could talk to them, I talked to Jeff in tech support, I hope to have the part this weekUpper guide

Well I have installed the guides on the saw and put the 1” blade back on to cut a scrap piece of walnut 8” X 8” X 3/4” to make veneer for inlay and was very impressed by the results I shaved off a piece about 3/16” and after a light sanding on the belt sander I had an 1/8” piece which I added to my veneer stash. I can’t believe how true it cut with all most no set up time. I would recommend the King blade and the ceramic blocks to anyone that does re-sawing even though it’s a bit expensive, I paid about $400.00 for the new guides, 1” King blade, ¼” & ½” blade.

Bob, The guys at Laguna told me that the new guides would make sparks but it was not a problem (yea for them) but any way I did take the time to set it up the way I thought it should be along with the directions. They said to use a dollar bill to set the clearances which I did but I also took about 10 min to ensure the blade was parallel to the guide and the back of the guide was the same distance as the guides top and bottom. The results were NO SPARKS so I don’t know what the deal is with sparks. Maybe I’m setting it up wrong I may call Laguna, although it cuts real well and the blade stays clean. As a side note I think that blade tension is the key to a good set up.

Waynet, you can use them on any larger saw or get a set from the people that make the saw you have or they will recommend a third party. The blade is really the bet I have seen. I will post a photo when I find the camera, my wife to it up to get photos of the grand kids in Atlanta